Meanwhile #123
Posters by Matt Needle.
It’s another members' edition of Meanwhile! The Oscars are once more upon us; a fine excuse to interrogate one of my favourite contemporary designers, Matt Needle, who’s just completed his annual project, creating tribute posters for each of the Best Picture nominees.
First of all, as with a lot of designers, I’m familiar with your work but know very little about the person behind it – where are you based, what’s your background?
I was born and raised just outside of Oxford, but moved to Wales for university about sixteen years ago and have been here ever since. I'm based in Cardiff, but live just outside the city, and have a house on the coast, which is perfect for me – I love fact I'm close to a vibrant, cultural city and equally close to the ocean, beaches, mountains and forests when I want to go for a hike and clear my head. I trained in graphic design at college and university, whilst also freelance designing/illustrating for magazines and working placements at studios, securing a full time studio job before I graduated. I decided very quickly that I wanted to do my own thing and went freelance in 2009 and haven't looked back since.
So how did you get into poster design?
I started dabbling in it around 2006-07, when I was on a summer break from my first year of university. I needed something creative to occupy my time and I'd been given a Hitchcock boxset as a gift, and decided to make a minimalist series of posters. I put those online and they started getting shared and people started requesting/commissioning me to do other movies. This is basically something I continue to do to this day; when Covid hit and a lot of my projects were on hold, I decided to work on my Bond posters, something I'd planned for many years but had never found the time to do. I also work on posters for the Oscars every year (nine years and counting!) and I make a few film noir posters for Noirvember every year.
Who are your favourite poster designers?
Historically I'd say Saul Bass, Hans Hillman, Andrzej Klimowski, Andrzej Pągowski, Wiesław Wałkuski, Jakob Erol, Bill Gold, Milton Glaser, Andy Warhol, Hannah Höch, Martha Rosler, amongst many others. I also draw a lot of inspiration from Pop Art Movement, Dadaism, Bauhaus and Japanese and Polish Film Poster from the 20th century. As for contemporary designers, I love the work of Akiko Stehrenberger, Midnight Marauder, Tony Stella, Neil Kellerhouse, to name a few.
What challenges does the Oscars project throw at you?
The biggest challenge is finding the time to do them all justice! in previous years I would work on them weekends and evenings, but in recent years since having a child I no longer do that, so I have to block out enough space between projects to work on them. This year I feel was the strongest series I've worked on to date, and I put that down to having a bit more freedom to explore ideas and stylistically experimental concepts, without having to rush to get the last few done in time.
Were you disappointed by any omissions from the nominations; any posters you were really looking forward to working on?
I pretty much predicted the choices, except I'd swapped out Don't Look Up for Tick Tick Boom. I actually think it's a strong selection, and due to shorter release windows, I was able to catch most of them at home by the time the project rolled round which was convenient. I would've loved The Mitchell's Vs The Machines get a nod for Best Picture, and I really enjoyed The Green Knight, Red Rocket and C'mon C'mon as well. but otherwise a great, fairly diverse selection of films to work on.
Are you already looking forward to next year’s nominees? Are you already sketching out ideas for The Northman or Nope?
I'm excited for this project every year, but no I haven't started on ideas just yet. Super excited for some stuff that's coming up though – I can't wait to see what I’ll be working on this time next year.
Have you received feedback from the film-makers themselves?
Yeah over the years I've had film-makers, actors and producers of the films reach out and share my work. This year both Guillermo Del Toro and Kim Morgan shared my Nightmare Alley poster. I've had support from people such as Elijah Wood, James Caan, Ava DuVernay, Brad Bird, Clint Mansell and many more over the years, which is really encouraging, exciting and inspires me to keep working on these little side projects.
What’s your typical process? Do you work on paper first, or just launch straight into Photoshop?
Typically I work in a little sketchbook (shoutout to Field Notes) and do loads of little rough scamps/concepts and develop it on paper first, then launch into Photoshop/Illustrator where I do the bulk of the work. I tend to produce multiple versions, print out a bunch of test prints then tweak and hone the final design. I usually work on two Oscars posters at the same time and switch between them.
Another fantastic series you worked on, designing posters for all of the Bond films. Was that challenging, avoiding repetition while still making thim feel part of a whole? Did any of them really stump you?
It was a fascinating experiment, that came about at a time when all projects were on hold or delayed due to Covid, so I luxuriated in having the time to explore many creative experiments within the series. The project was meant to be a way for me to play around and come up with a series that was not bound by a uniformed design style but the posters were clearly still all linked. I didn't really struggle with any of them, however looking back two years on there are bits I would change.
Working on tribute posters, there’s often nothing but low res stills to work with. How much is your aesthetic driven by available material? Do you have particular tricks for getting around limited resources?
If that's the case, I'II tend to shoot wildly in the opposite direction and create something a little more abstract. with my Bond posters, I probably only used stills from the actual films in about five of them. My work tends to be a collage, both in the sense of method and concept. I try to weave as many ideas and easter eggs into my design as possible, even if it’s just subtle, like the colour or typeface used.
Do your personal projects ever lead directly to client work? Do you get requests for something just like this one or that one?
Almost always! The amount of work I got from the Bond posters helped me get through the pandemic immensely, and every year I get a slew of job offers from my Oscars project. I'd say that it's as important as any paid job that I work on. I do get a lot of directors referencing specific bits of work I've done and asking for something in a similar style/approach, but usually they just include my work in their mood boards and brief as a reference.
So what’s next? You must have another series up your sleeve once the Oscars are done … ?
I haven't got a clue! I was working on a series of 50s-80s thriller movie posters last year, which I may continue, and I may work or some giallo or horror posters later in the year, but as of right now I'm not sure. I do want to focus on doing more stuff outside of movie posters as well, as I love being able to intersperse album covers, book covers and magazine illustrations within my work rotation.